Saturday, August 15, 2009

God Listened to Abraham's Request to Help Lot

By Mary Vee

In the last story, we talked about a time when the Lord and two angels visited Abraham. They ate a meal together and talked. As the three visitors got up to leave, the Lord decided to tell Abraham about the problems in Sodom and Gomorrah. "The sin in these two cities is so very terrible."

Abraham knew what God meant. The people in the city would have to be punished.

Abraham also realized that the sins were bad enough that God would have to destroy the two cities.

The two angels turned away and walked toward Sodom. They wanted to see how bad things were.

Abraham watched them walk away. He immediately thought about his nephew Lot. Even though Lot was a rascal, Abraham loved him and cared very much about Lot and his family.

Abraham moved closer to the Lord. He looked over at the angels walking away then back to the Lord. "Will you punish the people in Sodom who love you along with the people who don't?"

Abraham squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of Sodom. "What if there are fifty people in the city who love you, will you really destroy the city and not spare it for those fifty people?"

The Lord answered, "If I can find fifty people who love me in Sodom, I will spare the whole city just for them."

Abraham wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought for a second then said, "I know I have been bold. I'm not worthy to ask you for this, but what if there were 45 people who loved you in Sodom. Will you destroy the whole city because there were 5 less people who love you?"

The Lord said "If I find forty-five people there who love me, I will not destroy it."

God knew Abraham was trying to save Lot and his family. He stood there patiently and listened to Abraham.

Abraham ask the Lord to save Sodom if there were forty people who loved Him, then thirty people, then twenty, and finally for ten people. Each time the Lord said, "For the sake of those people I will not destroy it."

Abraham knew that Lot and his wife only had two daughters. Maybe he'd hope there were at least six other people in the city who loved God. He wasn't sure.

What we do know, is God wants us to ask Him to help the people we love. Next Wednesday we will see how God helped Lot and his family.

God loves you! He wants to take care of you and the people you love.

Sometimes we don't see the ways God takes care of us. Can you share something that God did for someone else, someone from the Bible or maybe something God did for you? Click on the comment button below to share.

No comments: